Holt County, MO Biography

Adam KLIPPEL is the former editor and publisher of the Holt
County Sentinel and is a native of Germany. He was born at the
village of Wackernheim, near the city of Mentz, on the Rhine,
Nov. 1, 1828. His father, Philip KLIPPEL, owned a vineyard and
small farm. The family immigrated to America in 1838. Adam was
the fourth of eight children. They landed in New York City in
Sept. 1838, moved directly to West Virginia, and then, in the
fall of 1839, to Cincinnati, Ohio where Adam grew up.

In 1840 he began learning the printing business in the Western
Methodist Book Concern where he was employed from age 12 to 1849,
principally engaged as a compositor on book work, and fully learned
the printing business. This was his only education except for
a brief period at Woodward College at Cincinnati. His father died
in 1844 and he helped support the family. It was his good fortune
to form the acquaintance of Salmon P. CHASE, who in various ways
befriended him. In 1849, Adam left Cincinnati with the intention
of joining in on the Calif. gold rush. When he reached St. Joseph,
Mo. he and the party accompanying him learned of the great numbers
who had left ahead of them; this led to their decision to stop
in the Platte Purchase. He secured employment with the St. Joseph
Gazette and for three years was compositor for the paper.

In July 1852 he married Elizabeth SNIDER, the daughter of
Philip SNIDER, now of Oregon. That year, he left the printing
business to work in the ministry in conjunction with the German
Methodist Episcopal Church. He filled appointments at Jefferson
City and Boonville and had charge of a circuit embracing Cooper,
Moniteau, Osage, Cole, Morgan and Pettis Counties. From the fall
of 1854 to 1860 he preached in Ill. and was on the Petersburg
circuit in Menard County, the Ahrenville circuit in Cass and Morgan
Counties, and for two years was stationed at Springfield. Here
he formed the acquaintance of Abraham Lincoln. In 1861 Mr. KLIPPEL
became employed as a railway postal clerk on the Chicago and Alton
R.R. and held that position for eight years. During this time,
he was appointed to be delegate to a Chicago convention of railway
postal clerks, to visit the Postmaster General and lay before
him the action of the convention. It was on this occasion that
Mr. KLIPPEL received from President Lincoln a note of introduction
to Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, which reads as follows,
and which he still warmly cherishes:

"Postmaster-General, --Please see and hear Rev. Adam
KLIPPEL, who, it seems is an agent of yours, and is certainly
an old and valued friend of mine. Abraham Lincoln."

In 1869, he resigned from the mail service and, at the solicitation
of friends and relatives in Holt Co., came to Oregon and assumed
charge of the Sentinel which he has made a popular and influential
newspaper. He has always been an earnest Republican. He disposed
of the Sentinel in Nov., 1876, but is still widely known throughout
the county and commands the confidence of the people.